Letting Go
by Always-Obsessed66
Summary: Speculation for 4x07, Emma runs away after hurting her father. Hook tries his best to bring her home.


**AN: ****So I haven't written a fic in a long time… this is my first completed and published OUAT fic. I have four-ish more but I'm having trouble finishing them (writers block). Anyway this story is bordering on Dark!Emma but I feel like it's not dark enough to actually classify it as a Dark story.**** Okay sooo not cool ABC… So up there in the underline is what I wrote before I watched episode 4x06 and the promo for 4x07 and that is what this fic was going to be about(the promo for 4x07 I mean) so this now classifies as "Speculation for episode 4x07"…anywho here goes nothing. R&R please. Sorry for any OOCness. **

Emma stared blankly at the wall of the sheriff's station, or rather the large hole in the center of it. _Had she done this?_ She looked down at her hands warily. _Her powers were getting stronger!_

"Emma!" She looked up to see her father, mother, boyfriend, son, Gold, Belle, Elsa, and Regina running towards her. She held up her hands in a 'don't come any closer' sign. _She couldn't let them get hurt._

"Wait, stop! Don't come any closer!" They came to a wary stop. Emma continued, "I'm not sure if I can control myself." Her mother gave her a questioning look.

"Emma, what happened?" Emma struggled to find the right words, or any words for that matter, to describe what had happened.

"Well…I…I mean…she…and then…I just…angry…and the…the wall just…exploded…and I…I didn't mean it…but…I-" Suddenly a pair of hands found her own and she looked up to see Killian standing in front of her. She jerked back, not wanting to hurt him. As her hands left his a spark and a pop was heard. A nearby street light fell, landing on top of David.

"David!" Her mother ran to her husband. They pulled his limp body out from under the lamp post. Emma could feel the others staring at her, but she didn't look up at them, instead she keep her eyes trained on her shaking hands.

"I'm a monster." She glanced up at her unconscious father and crying mother. Snow opened her mouth to say something but Emma didn't stick around to find out what it was. She sprinted around the station to her bug. She heard her mother calling after her.

"Emma, wait," tears were streaming down the blonde's face, "you don't have to run!" But she was already gone.

Emma didn't know how long she had been running. It was dark now. When she had abandoned her car at the edge of the woods and ran, it had been light out then. Hadn't it? She didn't really remember; everything that had happened since she left the station earlier that afternoon had been a bit of a blur.

Her thoughts were interrupted by thunder cracking overhead. She stopped in her tracks and held her breath, hoping that she had been imagining it.

"Shit," she whispered to herself. A new fallen raindrop started to make its way down the side of her face, and countless more began to fall around her. Emma took in her surroundings, searching for signs of shelter. Lightning lit up the sky, briefly illuminating a dark shape in the distance. "What the...?" Emma squinted into the dark, waiting for another flash. When it finally came again, she quickly made out the distant shadow. It was a cave! She sprinted for the rocky shelter; sighing as she ran into the mouth of the cave, soaked and chilled to the bone, but grateful for the shelter. She leaned against one wall of the cave, slid down until she was sitting on the cold stone floor, and drew her knees up to her chest. Then she put her head in her hands, tears running down her face, and screamed.

Snow called her again, and again it pushed her through to voicemail immediately.

"_This is Emma, leave a message and I'll get back to you." _ She heard the electronic beep and began pleading with her daughter again.

"Emma, it's you mother, please come home." She took a shaky breath and continued, "David, your father, he's fine, oh Emma sweetie, he's okay. Dr. Whale checked him out and said he didn't have to stay the night. He's with everyone else out looking for you. Emma please come home, I know you're scared honey, but we need you to come home." Snow opened her mouth to continue, but she was cut off by the beep signaling that her time was up. Snow let out a strangled sob as she hung up and dialed another number. He picked up after two rings.

"Snow, did you talk to her? Where is she? Is she okay?" Her husband's worried voice came through the phone. Snow sighed.

"No, it went to voicemail again. I'm really worried, Charming." Snow let out another sob.

"Hey," David soothed her, "she will be fine. She's probably just driving around for a while."

"I know I just don't want her to be out in this storm," she looked out the apartment window at the rain. She tried to say something else but was cut off by frantic shouts coming from behind her husband. "What is that?" She asked him frantically.

"Well," Charming seemed unsure of what to say.

"Charming, what is it?" Snow took a deep breath, "Did they find her? Is she alright?" No response came. "Charming, answer me! What's going on?!" David took a shaky breath.

"Snow, don't panic, but," another deep breath, "they found Emma's car."

"What? Charming, I, I don't understand. What does-" Charming cut her off.

"It was at the edge of the woods, it was empty, no sign of her." She could hear the sadness in his voice, "Snow, I think she ran into the woods." Snow sobbed. _Her baby, her Emma, was in the middle of the woods, in the rain, alone, and scared. _"Her phone and walkie were also in her car." Her husband informed her before saying his goodbye and hung up to continue to search for their daughter.

Snow dropped the phone and walked over to her son's crib, glad to have him next to her. She gently caressed his face and dropped to her knees next to the crib, tears streaming down her face for her lost daughter.

They had decided to split into groups to look for Emma. The Crocodile had gone off alone. The queen went with Henry. Granny and the skimpy waitress teamed up. The dwarves split into a few groups and so did the merry men. And Hook, well Hook was paired up with Emma's father and newfound best friend.

"EMMA!" David yelled into the night. "EMMA?" Hook joined in the call.

"SWAN! LOVE, WHERE ARE YOU?"

"Guys, look," Hook spun around to find Elsa pointing her light, which David called a flashlight, at a set of keys lying in a puddle. David ran over and picked them up.

"They're Emma's." Hook scanned their surroundings. He pointed his flashlight back the way they'd come.

"So if her car was left back that way," He spun around and gestured at the puddle, "and her keys were left there," He lifted the beam beyond the puddle and found it pointing to a dark shadow in the distance, "then she must have gone that way." The three friends glanced at each other briefly before sprinting toward the cave.

Emma heard them calling her name. Part of her wanted to run out to them, especially when she heard her father's voice, and another part of her wanted to run, either out into the dark night or deeper into the cave she was in, but she didn't do either. She just sat, tears still running freely down her cheeks.

"Emma?" She jumped at the sound of her name. She saw flashlight beams moving around on the floor of the cave. "Emma, are you in here?" She saw Elsa coming around the corner, followed closely by Hook and her father.

"Emma!" David sank to his knees next to her, a bandage covering the left side of his forehead. Emma shuffled to her feet, quickly, and began sinking back deeper into the cave. "Emma wait, it's okay, _I'm_ okay."

"I hurt you!" Emma cried, "You need to leave before I hurt you again, or kill you or someone else. I just…please leave." She shrank into the darkness of the shadows, weeping softly.

David went to follow her, Elsa at his heels, Hook stopped them.

"Wait," David and Elsa spun around to look at him. Hook sighed.

"Perhaps only one of us should go." David opened his mouth to argue but one look from Hook made him rethink what he was about to say. He nodded solemnly.

"You bring her home," the pirate gave the prince a nod, "come on Elsa." Hook watched as they walked to the opening of the cave, staying just inside so as to stay out of the rain. He turned toward the shadows in the back of the cave, the shadows in which the love of his life was hiding.

Emma stood facing one of the walls of the cave. She heard footsteps behind her. She turned to look at her pirate. She said nothing. Hook gave her a sad look.

"C'mon love, let's get you home and dried off." She shook her sadly, "Emma, come on, we can pretend like none of this ever happened." Emma smiled at the thought, _pretend like it never happened,_ but it did happen. And she couldn't let it happen again.

"No, we can't. We can't pretend it never happened because it did! It did happen, Killian, and I hurt someone! I hurt someone I cared about, and I can't risk it happening again! I just can't. If you really knew me, you'd understand. Goodbye Hook." She started to walk deeper into the cave.

"Swan wait!" She spun around.

"I'm just trying to protect you, protect everybody!" She began walking away again.

"You don't have to protect me, I'm not afraid. None of us are." She ignored him and kept walking. "Please don't shut me out again, lass." Again tears came to her eyes, threatening to fall. "Please don't build up walls. You don't have to keep your distance from us anymore." Emma slowed to a stop listening to his words, determined not to cry. "I understand, finally. And you know what? We can fix this together, hand in hand, or hand in Hook if you prefer." She let out a small laugh as a few tears escaped her hold on them and ran down her cheeks. "We can walk out of this cave together, love. You don't have to live in fear of hurting someone. Because, love, I will be right here, at your side, the whole time." She wanted to go with him so badly; however, she couldn't let anyone get hurt because of her. _No, she couldn't go with him._ She turned around surprised to find tears running down his face.

"Hook, please go back to town. A better life awaits you. Go enjoy yourself and find someone else to love."

"No, Swan…" She cut him off.

"I know, you mean well. But leave me be." She sighed. "Yeah I'm alone, but you're all safe and free. Just stay away and you'll be safe from me."

"Swan, love, we don't need to be protected from you because you're not dangerous." She looked into his eyes, waiting for him to say something else. "Your mother is worried sick about you, lass." She chuckled, a smile slowly spreading across her face, "I suggest you get home and apologize to her or else we'll see who the dangerous one is." She couldn't hold it in any longer, she laughed, and it felt good. "C'mon lass," Hook said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. He began leading her out of the cave when her knees buckled from exhaustion. Emma gave him a grateful smile as he scooped her into his arms. She sighed, resting her head against his chest, as she succumbed to sleep.

**AN: I think that's where I'm going to leave it off. I intend this to be a one-shot but if you want more, by all means leave a review and I'll get right on it. Oh and before I forget I want to thank my editor, friend, and teammate: merlin's busy saving the world. Thanks so much you're a life saver! Bye for now!**


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